Lakers 117-96 Celtics (January 23, 2025) Game Recap

LOS ANGELES — – Anthony Davis scored 24 points, Austin Reaves added 23 and the Los Angeles Lakers cruised to a 117-96 victory over the Boston Celtics on Thursday night.

LeBron James had 20 points and 14 rebounds after being drafted All-Star Game for the 21st consecutive season earlier in the day.

James also passed Hakeem Olajuwon for seventh in defensive rebounds in NBA history early in the third quarter. James, who has 9,720, needed six entering the game to pass the Hall of Fame center.

Kristaps Porzingis led Boston with 22 points and Jaylen Brown added 17.

Los Angeles, which has won two straight after a stretch in which it dropped four of six, was up by 28 during the fourth quarter.

Takeaways

Celtics: Jayson Tatum, also voted to the All-Star Game, finished with 16 points. Boston played three games in four days and was coming off a 117-113 overtime win against the Clippers on Wednesday.

Lakers: Gabe Vincent finished with a season-high 12 points on four 3-pointers. Los Angeles hit 11 3-pointers in the first half, tying a season high in the first two quarters. It was 15 of 35 from beyond the arc for the game.

Key moment

James drove past Luke Kornet and Sam Hauser in the lane and finished with a dunk with 8.9 seconds left in the first quarter to give the Lakers a 34-23 lead and cap a 17-5 run to close the period.

Key state

Bronny James entered his second straight game and was 0 of 1 from the field in four minutes.

Next

Both teams return to action on Saturday. The Celtics are in Dallas and the Lakers begin a six-game road trip against Golden State.

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AP NBA: